The College News
VOL. XXIV, No. 24
BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 1938
Copyright TRUSTEES OF
BRYN MAWR COLLEGE, 1938
PRICE 10 CENTS
'Patience' is Well
Directed by Alwyne,
But Choruses Weak
Principals Carry Performance
With Farcical Overacting,
Clear Voices
ANNE KIDDER PROVES
A NATURAL PATIENCE
Goodhart, April SO. � Patience,
the Glee �lub's Gilbert ana Sullivan
operetta for this year, given for the
benefit of the record library, played
to an audience of nearly 1000. The
performance was distinguished by the
acting of its leading characters, who
triumphed over the generally uneven
singing of the other 45 supporting
players.
Under Mr. Alwyne's direction the
acting was excellent in spots, espe^l
cially sprightly in the second act. The
brilliant costumes of the drooping
maidens in the finale proved to be a
welcome change and climax.
Best remembered twenty years from
now will probably be Terry Ferrer,
'40, the Mikado's Lord High Execu-
tioner, as Bunthorne. In his green
velvet suit and pancake hat, with
drooping lily and disjointed gait, the
implausible Bunthorne dominated all
his scenes. His singing and speaking
were so clear and distinct that he
could be heard even in the last rows
of the balcony. Bunthorne and Lady
Jane rated two encores from the Sat-
urday evening audience, who wanted
more of their tripping and verbal
parries.
Camilla Riggs, '40, as the "massive"
Lady Jane, also sang clearly and pow-
erfully. Her characterization was
ridiculously farcical, her bass viol solo
was pathetic�but the look she gave
the orchestra member who forgot to
bow his instrument when she did was
in a class all by itself.
Although her voice was not strong,
Cornelia Kellogg, '39, was a most
successful and beautiful Grosvenor.
Very picturesque in black, she added
smug faces and graceful gestures to
her skillful acting of a character,
which she describes mildly as "soupy."
She made her transition into a check-
ered suit and short hair so profession-
ally, that at first we felt she was a
different person. %
Because Patience is simple and un-
affected, she could not have been
more appropriately portrayed than she
was by Anne Kidder, '41. With her
yellow hair in pigtails, she was a
naive, bewildered maiden with just
the right shade of awkwardness in
her feet. "My shoes and stockings
Continued on Page Flva
Duncanites' Withdrawal
Postpones Dance Forum
Modern Group Plans to Feature
Weidman Dance May 10
Because of the last-minute with-
drawal of the Duncan dancers from
the Dancers Club Forum, the date has
been advanced to Tuesday, May 10.
The added rehearsal time will give the
Modern group a chance to lengthen
their program and add the technique
of other modern schools, particularly
that of Charles Weidman.
The group is planning to conclude
their program with Affirmation which
is the final movement of the dance,
Quest, written for the Weidman group.
This movement interprets the end of
a search for new technique and eman-
cipation from the older and more con-
fining- forms of the dance.
This dance is difficult in its execu-
tion as two groups dance continually
in contrapuntal rhythm with the em-
phasis shifting from one group to the
other. It is an ambitious work for a
group as inexperienced as this, but
will give ample evidence of both Miss
Doris Humphrey's ability as a teacher
and the persistent training of Ethel
Mann. It is possible that Mr. Charles
Weidman himself will attend some of
the rehearsals. L. J. S.
Terry Ferrer, '40, and Anne Kidder
Gay Traces Growth
Of Modern Industry
Commerce Becomes Centralized
And Individualistic; Cyclical
Waves Begin
HOME TRADE MOST VITAL
Camilla Riggs, '
40
Goodhart, May 2.�In his fifth lec-
ture, Dr. Edwin Gay discussed the
expansion of English commerce dur-
ing the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies. He dealt particularly with
the changes in foreign and domestic
trade.
The growth of foreign trade was
the most brilliant and spectacular of
the two. It was caused, first, by the
discoveries of new lands with fresh
stores of precious metals. Because
of the rise of prices throughout the
period, England needed gold and
silver. Consequently, many of the
great tradtfig companies of the time
were originally founded to search for
new territories with new sources of
sup'ply.
The second reason for the expan-
sion of foreign commerce was the
lure of trade. There was a great de-
mand for tropical products; spices,
silks, rugs, jewels, and drugs. It was
in an effort: to supplement supplies of
such luxuries that the English first
tried to obtain colonies in the new
world. When France and Spain had
occupied all the more suitable terri-
tories, attempts were even made to
raise silkworms in the northern tem-
perate regions and to grow figs as far
north as New Haven.
The displacement of Antwerp as the
dominating European market was the
third cause of the rise of foreign
trade. Antwerp had been ruined by
the Spanish invasions and by the
crisis that followed the wild specula-
tion of 1565. This gave the English
merchants an opportunity to force
their way into the German trade that
had formerly been controlled by the
Hanseatic League. London, not Ant-
werp, became the financial center of
the western world. The government,
no vlonger able to fall back on Eu-
ropean resources, had to build up this
new financial power in order to meet
its own needs.
This influx of wealth was followed
by waves of speculation. The profits
Continued on Pas* Six
COLLEGE CALENDAR
Thursday, May 5�Dr. Donald
Adams of Duke University will
speak on The Nature of Explan-
ation in Psychology. Music
Room, 4.30.
Friday, May (5�Payion, Poi-
son and Petrifactior/and Tri-
fles to be given by the Players'
Club. Goodhart, 8.30.
Sunday, May 8 � Hampton
Quartet. Deanery, 5 p'. m. Dr.
Donald Aldrich will speak in
Chapel. Music Room, 7.30.
Monday, May 9�Sixth Flex-
ner Lecture by Dr. Edwin Gay.
Goodhart, 8.20.
Tuesday, May 10�Interna-
tional Relations Club meeting.
Common Room, 7.30. Dance
Forum. Gymnasii/m, 8.30.
Physics and Chemistry
Majors Describe Work
Advanced Research is Reported at
Science Club Meeting
Common Room, May 2�At its last
formal meeting of the year, the Sci-
ence Club heard four of its own mem-
bers speak. Gene Irish, '39, sharer of
the Charles S. Hinchman prize for
1938-39, explained the work she has
begun with monomolecular films for
her honors in physics. Elizabeth Web-
ster, '38, described her research in
organic chemistry. Eleanor Benditt,
'39, reported on the Intercollegiate
Students' Chemist Convention, and
Helen Hamilton, '39, gave demonstra-
tions of filtering in connection with
her construction of an amplifier.
Gene Irish is working with Mr. Wal-
ter C. Michels on monomolecular
films in order to test their electrical
conductivity. She described the meth-
ods in forming these films which have
been developed by Katherine Blodgett
at the General Electric laboratories.
The molecule of barium stearate is
large and complex. One end has an
affinity for water (hydrophilic) and
the other is hydrophobic. In the prep-
aration of films a drop of barium
stearate is floated on pure water in a
special ^trough* An enclosing^ string
serves as a bakrier around the area
in which this yflrop spreads. Outside
the string is a film of castor oil which
maintains a pressure on the string so
that the coating of barium stearate
will be uniform.
This film is a single molecule thick
and they are arranged with their hy-
drophobic tails perpendicular to the
water. The heads of the molecules will
adhere to a glass slide raised sideways
through the film so that a layer comes
off on the slide. This delicate pro-
cedure can be continued to build films
of any desired thickness.
� Optical methods are used in study-
ing these films. Gene Irish showed an
example of <,'gt,�w<4#,*^iv^.n4--de-
structive interterenee or fTgrtt in an
air film. As a beam of light was re-
fracted from a thin layer of air be-
tween two blocks of glass, it showed
bands of dark and light which became
wider as, by pressing on the blocks,
the film was made thinner.
Elizabeth Webster has been working
on the preparation of azines. These
are organic compounds which are ex-
pensive to buy, and the hydrazine
which is necessary for their prepara-
tion decomposes freely. Under Mr.
Arthur C. Cope, the students are de-
Contlnued on Pag* Four
College Skips to the Maypole Before .
Chapel Announcement of Scholarships
Gene Irish and Grace Dolowitz, '39, Win Hinchman Award
For Promise in Major Field; Virginia Grace, Ph.D.,
Given Guggenheim Fellowship \.
DAWN WAKES SENIORS
TO RITES OF MAY DAY
Dean Schenck Honored
"^..�itfitte'Mffrgan -Sehenek,
Dean of the Graduate School,
has been elected to the Council
of the American Association of
University Professors. She at-
tended meetings heH over the
week-end of April 23, and was
also elected one of the seven
members of the executive com-
mittee. There are only two other
women on the council.
"At 5.45 a. m., May 2, there was a
terrible awakening for the sophomore
class. Struggling from their beds into
a literal "gray dawn," they irritably
grabbed May baskets and stomped up
and down singing mournfully. The
ditty began Headaches, headaches, and
the gloom was intensified by the nox-
ious tune, Heigho.
They were ostensibly cheered, how-
ever, by the suffering of the seniors
whom they stirred slowly and pain-
fully one by one. While the seniors
dressed, the conscientious sophomores
made coffee. That is one or two did,
others played rummy and slept. Tin
two French House sophomores had
an especially trying time singing a
duet to the four resident seniors.
Fortified with tepid coffee and
equally tepid doughnuts, the Class of
1938 hastened off to Rockefeller Tow-
er to sing. From below only a frantic
black arm keeping time was visible
in the rising sun. When they descend-
ed, diminutive Mary Sands, president
of the Senior class received her regal
wreath and an embrace from Louise
Sharp, sophomore president.
Fortified once more, the seniors, led
by the village band and Julia Grant,
president of Undergraduate T?fssocia-
tion, skipped up from Rockefeller to
Merion Green where the other classes
joined them. Although Julia Grant's
position naturally emphasized her
May skip, it was in itself interesting
and unique.
The Maypole dancers from each
class took up their ribbons at their re-
spective poles and began to act, as a
member of the Science faculty neatly
put it, like composite electrons. All
went well except the graduate pole.
It not only defied the laws of physics,
but got into the most awful tangle
possible in a given length of time.
Miss Park next presented a neck-
lace of Florentine silver to Mary
Sands, which, she said, was an ex
pression of emotional esteem. After
thanking Miss Park with a "fine
Florentine fourteenth century frenzy"
the 1938 president made what she
termed a "nightmare speech." Chanted
in part and sung to tunes vaguely
reminiscent of Patience, it was an as-
tute comment on the ways and mean
ing of May Day:
"To the Maypole let us on
Straight to Miss Park's here we go
To leave a basket at her front do',"
Prophecy, as is common in dreams,
played an important part:
"89 lovesick maidens we,
Rolling Hoops down Senior Hill,
20 years hence will we be
89 lovesick maidens still."
After the ceremony on the Green,
chi4>4 was neld in Goodhart The hoop
'rolling race which followed was won
by Blanca Noel, '38.
ELIZABETH DODGE, '41,
WINS ENGLISH PRIZE
Goodhart Hall, May 2�In May Day
Chapel President Park announced the
awards of graduate and undergradu-
ate scholarships and prizes for 1938-
39. In ^explaining the faith shown bjj
the Gellege, not only in these special
scholars, but in every student, Miss
Park asserted that "the trained mind
is' the cutting edge of civilization."
Endowment pays half the actual
cost of undergraduate and f *ve sev-
enths of graduate tuition. For return
on the investment the only expecta-
tion is the contribution each student
may make in the furtherance of civil-
ization. A confidence that educated
minds are desirable has prompted the
following awards.
Gene Irish, '39, and Grace Dolo-
witz, '39, were awarded the Charles
S. Hinchman Memorial Scholarship
for greatest ability in the major sub-
jects. The papers submitted to the fac-
ulty committee by both students were,
said Miss'Park, exceptionally mature
in their treatment and technically
suitable for publication. As the mem-
ber of the junior class with the high-
est average, Grace Dolowitz also re-
ceived the Maria L. Eastman Brooke
Hall Memorial Scholarship.
Among the graduate appointments,
Miss Park announced that a Guggen-
heim Fellowship had been awarded
to Virginia Grace, who graduated
from Bryn Mawr in 1922 and received
her Ph. D. here in 1934. Frances
Blank, graduate scholar in Latin
at Bryn Mawr during the past year,
received the highly competitive schol-
arship for two years study at the
American Academy in Rome.
A Law School Research Grant at
Harvard University for next year has
been awarded to Bertha Haven Put-
nam, Bryn Mawr, '93. This is the first
time such a grant has ever been given
to a woman.
Miss Park also announced five new-
ly established awards. The Edwin
Gould Foundation has endowed three
scholarships to continue for the four
years of undergraduate study. Mem-
bers of the Class of 1935 have jriven
the Cary Page Memorial Scholarship,
while a prize for excellence in Eco-
nomics was donated in memory of
Margaret Jeanne von Rehling Quist-
gaard by the class of 1937.
Continued on Pare Four
Helen S. Cobb is New
Peace Council Head
Members to Solicit Funds for World
Youth Congress
INTERIOR DECORATING
BEGINS IN NEW HALLS
According to the latest bulletins
oh building progress, the new science
building is now complete with roof,
floors, walls and doors. Painters were
scheduled to begin work on the inter-
ior the first of this week. The install-
ment of scientific equipment, which is
being done by a separate contracting
company, will begin soon .after the in-
terior is completed.
Both wings of Rhoads hall will be
entirely finished by the beginning of
next year. Prospective inmates need
not fear that they will be harassed by
finishing touches with hammer and
drill in southerly portions. With the
roof of the building already more than
half completed, workers will begin to
plaster the walls in about two weeks.
Next, the floors will be laid. The large
amount of difficult stone-carving work
required on the arch is now the main
factor delaying progress.
Pembroke West, April 28�At the
last meeting of the Peace Council for
this year, the officers for '38-'39 were
elected. Helen Cobb, '40, will be the
new president and Lucile Sauder, '39,
the secretary-treasurer. Following the
election, Louise Morley, '40, retiring
president, presented the remaining
business of the year.
Boxes for the collection of funds for
the Philadelphia Peace Chest will be
placed in every hall. The drive is be-
ing sponsored by the Womens' Inter-
national League for Peace and Free-
dom. Individual members of the Coun-
cil will solicit both signatures and
contributions to help finance the
World Youth Congress to be held at
Vassar in August. The signatures will
be placed in a.general book of wel-
come to the delegates from 48 coun-
tries. Sums as low as_ten cents will be
gladly received.
The report on the Philadelphia
Peace Council was read, hut'it was de-
cided to delay the question of affilia-
tion until next year. Mary Hager, '41,
and Agnes Chen, graduate, announced
that they had collected 60 dollars for
Chinese relief from their sales in the
halls.